I Am Now A "Master", Whatever That Means

Dear Avid Reader,

It is official, I have achieved mastery of something. That something is business administration. That's right, I have an MBA. When did this happen? Last weekend apparently.

Processional

The whole idea of graduation should seem a lot weirder to us all. You wake up one Saturday, put on your best black bath robe, don your felt covered cardboard square (complete with a pull cord from your ceiling fan), walk a twenty foot straight line, shake a guy's hand, and only after that do people consider you a degreed individual. Why aren't more people questioning this procedure?

Some would say that you REALLY "get" your degree after your final paper or final test. But what makes that last project so special? Why didn't I just skip to the last test instead of taking all of the other tests before that last one?

The Speaker

I know I know, it's not the test in and of itself, it's the culmination of work that was done. I think my friend Jay put it best after I told him I was beginning my Master's work. He said, "What you'll find is that you already have a Master's degree, now you just have to go do all of the work." I think there is a lot of truth to that.

You see, I don't feel smarter and I don't feel like I have WAY more skills. I guess I just don't know what my MBA proves except that I can get an MBA. Maybe a Master's is a piece of evidence that proves that its bearer can have a large thought or even an interesting thought. You know, in case someone asks for my intelligence license. But the question that most people want answered is, have I "learned" anything?

Confirmation & The Reading Of The Names

I've probably learned more that I realize but like many milestones in life, you expect fireworks and sirens to go off and they rarely come. See, I was always jealous of people who came to graduation and got their Master's. They had those sweet looking hoods and they seemed to ooze awesome, if that makes sense. I would taste the bile of envy as they walked across the stage, hoods flowing in the air behind them. I felt like I would never reach that level of brilliance or accomplishment. It was as if I wasn't as smart as them.

So on the day I was set to get my Master's, I was so excited. I felt like the belle of the ball. During the processional, my fellow Master's candidates and I got to walk ahead the rest of the College of Business. We were beaming. But after we sat down, I began to look at all of the faculty in attendance. I realized that many of them were wearing hoods like me. A few had the stripes of a Doctorate, but most had just the hood.

And a funny thing happened. Instead of feeling like I had reached up and climbed to their high level of achievement, I felt as though I had lowered it for us all. All Master's degree holders everywhere would look to this day as the day that their education was diminished. They would all scowl and shake their fist at me as I walked by. "Thanks James," they would say, "I was in the middle of interviewing for a job and as soon as you crossed the stage the recruiter just started laughing. He laughed me out of his office!" And then they would throw a rock a me.

Climb Every Mountain

I guess instead of everything seeming so extraordinary, it felt so...well...ordinary. It just seemed like a natural thing for me to have this degree and to be here ready to receive it.

But during this past week I realize that that is probably what every achievement has felt like to the achiever. Einstein may have thought that is formula was perfectly un-earth-shattering. It was probably treated as pretty obvious. It may never occurred to Babe Ruth that crushing all of those home runs was peculiar. After all, he was just doing was he always did.

Recessional

So here is a Master's lesson for you (from a genuine Master): everything that has been accomplished has been accomplished by a regular person. I truly believe that what separates the ordinary from extraordinary is courage and effort. The heroes of the past did heroic things only because they tried to do something and weren't afraid to try.

So go out and try. You may just get a sweet hood out of the deal.

The Next Post Promises To Be Better,

James